Leftover Feelings

One of the unspoken rules of the music business is that you can age out of rock & roll, but youre allowed to show your age in blues and country if you do it right. The blues have always been a good match for the gritty, eloquent sneer of John Hiatts voice, and hes been more than willing to push himself in that direction in his recordings of the 2010s and onward, as the celebrated singer/songwriter, born in 1952, moves further from the sell-by date of most rock and pop artists. On 2021s Leftover Feelings, Hiatt has blended his bluesy sensibilities with a subtle country feel, though he clearly feels no alliance with the beer-and-pickup trucks mindset of Nashvilles current hitmakers. Hiatt recorded Leftover Feelings with the Jerry Douglas Band, led by Douglas, arguably the worlds best and certainly most influential dobro player. Though Mike Seal adds occasional flashes of electric guitar to the mix, this is otherwise an acoustic session which, as is the tradition in bluegrass, features no drums. The music is not bluegrass in either concept or execution (All the Lilacs in Ohio comes close), even though thats the path Douglas and his bandmates usually walk; instead, Hiatt and Douglas use the groups tonal palette to reflect the themes and emotions of Hiatts songwriting, with the band deferring to the needs of the material rather than their past musical associations. And even when the music isnt truly blues or bluegrass, Hiatt knows how to draw the rootsy sensibilities of his songs to the surface (theyre never buried especially deep anyway), and the subtle virtuosity of Douglas, Seal, bassist Daniel Kimbro, and fiddler Christian Sedelmyer is a superb match for Hiatts songs and lead vocals. After two decades of Hiatts reliable excellence in songwriting, Leftover Feelings does nothing to break this streak; the opening track Long Black Electric Cadillac is witty but a bit gimmicky, but the lonely wandering of Im in Asheville, the tragic family story of Light of the Burning Sun, and the bittersweet introspection of Changes in my Mind are the work of a masterful tunesmith with faultless instincts about how to deliver his material. Leftover Feelings isnt John Hiatts Acoustic Album, its a solid and rewarding set of songs that sounds a bit different than usual, but finds him working with some excellent and simpatico musicians who understand his craft and play into the feel of Hiatts material. ~ Mark Deming